US Politics, May 2018: How Broke Is He?

and you did it, you broke it

don't knock it till you've tried it

I just read that the organisers of the WHCD apologised on behalf of Wolf. Haven't heard what she said about that.

& I thought Trump was ok with Roasts since I did think it was one tool uused asa normalising device in the run up to the 2016 election having the TV roasting of him on whatever U.S. channel. It seemed to get endlessly reshown on one channel I have through cable. Found it revolting, can't remember who was involved celebrity wise but doesn't being involved serve as some form of advocacy for the monster that was created?
Nigel Farage was slipped into the Channel 4 celebration of was it the 70s or a specific year in there or possibly the whole series as a talking head. I thought that was a similar attempt at normalisation for a rather disgusting individual whose values should be inspected a lot more and wholesale rejected. Happened at about the same time i think, run up to the Brexit referendum.
Probably served similar purposes for both, serve up the negative individual as a 'normal' bloke with opinions and a sense of humour.

mmm, sounds like he thought "I'm Prez now, I don't have to do that anymore!" - I doubt he actually was OK with Roasts, or at least he probably was when he wasn't the target.

Mourning!

organisers of the WHCD

who the fuck even are these people

geniuses?

I thought Trump was ok with Roasts since I did think it was one tool uused asa normalising device in the run up to the 2016 election having the TV roasting of him on whatever U.S. channel.

This would be Comedy Central. In 2011.

Where famously the one thing comedians were not allowed to poke fun at was his purported worth.

curious how many more months of market stagnation the powers that be will tolerate before replacing mr. trump with mr. pence

I just learned that Richard Pryor performed at this thing in 1968. That WHCD apology is shit.

In today's episode of Mr. Turd's Wild Ride, the president argues you can't obstruct justice if you didn't break the law. Also, he did nothing wrong and it was all made up, especially collusion, which Mueller is definitely not looking into because he does not use that specific word.

So disgraceful that the questions concerning the Russian Witch Hunt were “leaked” to the media. No questions on Collusion. Oh, I see...you have a made up, phony crime, Collusion, that never existed, and an investigation begun with illegally leaked classified information. Nice!

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ca/cf/9f/cacf9f86392afeac7d83fdd2291b53af.jpg

did he just scan the list for "did you do collusion" or what

He really has the skill of projecting max butthurt down to an art.

he plugs in those hairplugs every dawn and tweets his little heart away

Max Butthurt
http://images.dailykos.com/images/389542/story_image/trump-headroom_1_.jpg?1492309230

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/us/politics/questions-mueller-wants-to-ask-trump-russia.html

I hope this is on live tv when asked are questions are

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration said on Monday that it would delay a decision to impose steel and aluminum tariffs on the European Union, Canada and Mexico for another 30 days, giving key allies a reprieve as the White House tries to extract concessions from trading partners who have resisted those demands.

... The 25 percent tariffs on steel and 10 percent on aluminum were set to go into effect on Tuesday and had set off a global scramble by nations trying to secure permanent exemptions.

more Governance-by-Hostagetaking

wasn't it the WHCD where Obama sassed Trump over birtherism as he boiled, hence setting him on the path to the presidency?

lol at maxbutthurt.jpg

max still delivering off ilx lolz

RT if you believe trump needs to answer these questions!!!! pic.twitter.com/7pmd3tuFlg

— Max Read (@max_read) May 1, 2018

Ten journalists were just killed in Afghanistan. Please STFU about the White House correspondents dinner https://t.co/LhCxT0bqGA by @maassp

— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) May 1, 2018

McCain announces he's not running for re-election...in his new book

"I'm freer than colleagues who will face the voters again. I can speak my mind without fearing the consequences much. And I can vote my conscience without worry."

looool

And I can vote voice my conscience and then cast a completely contradictory vote without worry.

Fixed it for ya there, Maverick.

never been much of a brain cancer stan but i'm willing to make an exception in mccain's case

co-sign

mccain announces own mortality, will not seek new term after his inevitable death

where's jar jar? has he flipped on 2scoops already?

too many nicknames dude, who is 'jar jar'

Jarold Kushner?

jarah juckabee jarders

i assumed it was just a reference to jar jar binks's pathetic blue-dog #DINO track record in the Galactic Senate

also gotta say i'm surprised that "Remember Sailor!" did not make it to the thread title but i've been listening to holland a lot so maybe it made more sense to me than others

modern bipartisanship: in addition to unending war and a secret surveillance state the two ruling parties also delight in trolling each other for fun and profit

triggering snowflakes on both sides

i had to read the comey book for work. this stuck out

On my plate, I had found a large cream-colored card describing the entire four-course menu in cursive script. Salad, shrimp scampi, chicken parmesan with pasta, and vanilla ice cream. The president began by admiring his own menu card, which he held up. “They write these things out one at a time, by hand,” he marveled, referring to the White House staff. “A calligrapher,” I replied, nodding. He looked quizzical. “They write them by hand,” he repeated.

That hurts so much ^^^

Just imagine if someone had hipped him to the existence of calligraphy before he was seventy. He could've really gone places with that wild scrawl of his. Places that aren't the White House.

welp. it's good imo. real good.

It's a ring-toss game

even his meals are the schmuck's idea of what a fancy bigshot richy mcrich would eat lol

white foods only
i bet the salad was egg

Nah, that’s a 12-year-old from flyover land going to Olive Garden with Mom when they are on daughter’s first junior high school shop in the nearest metro area and Mom says ‘no banana split’

i assumed it was just a reference to jar jar binks's pathetic blue-dog #DINO track record in the Galactic Senate

― noel gallaghah's high flying burbbhrbhbbhbburbbb (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, May 1, 2018 10:47 AM (twenty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

played a key role in normalizing Palpatine as military strongman. he-sa is #complicit

On my plate, I had found a large cream-colored card describing the entire four-course menu in cursive script. Salad, shrimp scampi, chicken parmesan with pasta, and vanilla ice cream. The president began by admiring his own menu card, which he held up. “They write these things out one at a time, by hand,” he marveled, referring to the White House staff. “A calligrapher,” I replied, nodding. He looked quizzical. “They write them by hand,” he repeated.

L-R: Comey, Trump, Eric

https://frinkiac.com/meme/S09E12/801233.jpg?b64lines=

Gotta love those returning cast members.

NEW: Exclusive: Trump doc says Trump bodyguard, lawyer "raided" his office, took medical files. https://t.co/U4CW0Xv2H5

— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 1, 2018

xpost

Trump doc says Trump bodyguard, lawyer 'raided' his office, took medical files

In February 2017, a top White House aide who was Trump's longtime personal bodyguard, along with the top lawyer at the Trump Organization and a third man, showed up at the office of Trump's New York doctor without notice and took all the president's medical records.

The incident, which Dr. Harold Bornstein described as a "raid," took place two days after Bornstein told a newspaper that he had prescribed a hair growth medicine for the president for years.

In an exclusive interview in his Park Avenue office, Bornstein told NBC News that he felt "raped, frightened and sad" when Keith Schiller and another "large man" came to his office to collect the president's records on the morning of Feb. 3, 2017. At the time, Schiller, who had long worked as Trump's bodyguard, was serving as director of Oval Office operations at the White House.

...

Bornstein said he was not given a form authorizing the release of the records and signed by the president —known as a HIPAA release — which is a violation of patient privacy law. A person familiar with the matter said there was a letter to Bornstein from then-White House doctor Ronny Jackson, but didn't know if there was a release form attached.

Bornstein said the original and only copy of Trump's charts, including lab reports under Trump's name as well as under the pseudonyms his office used for Trump, were taken.

The world can never know just how intensely healthy the man is. We aren't ready for it.

(Dollars to donuts this was to prevent news of Trump's Kuato getting out.)

• What was the purpose of your May 12, 2017, tweet?

After The Times revealed the president’s private dinner with Mr. Comey, Mr. Trump responded on Twitter.
James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017

HAHHA - REGRET

That bit with Bornstein is just so fucking small and so predictable. The world may be falling to pieces but Trump needs to make sure nobody knows what he actually weighs.

From the outside and on TV Trump is a clown and so are his henchmen but to people like this pathetic doctor, the Playmates, the contractors, etc. they are legit criminals who are pro's at scaring people. Anybody who doesn't think that the President of the United States hasn't in his decades of mafioso real estate business been on the ordering end of a physical beating (or worse) is kidding themselves. These guys are straight thugs.

We’ve never had a president with actual hired goons before, how novel.

Love a thuggish playmate

One of my lib friends is advocating for the return of the Fairness Doctrine.

I cant even

xp Seriously, how many people out there—not just Playmates or the doctor from Cannonball Run—are trembling about what they know and what they've been told might happen to them if they tell anybody? I'm sure we're seeing only a very small sample.

https://i.imgur.com/veod9.jpg

it's a real simpsonsy news day

what does "lib" mean?

Asked how he could justify saying Trump would be the healthiest president ever, Bornstein said, "I like that sentence to be quite honest with you and all the rest of them are either sick or dead."

is this the real life is this just fantasy

scaramucci, scaramucci

I hope all of our ailing ex-presidents are receiving nothing but the best hospice care.

lol was wondering why Propecia was trending

thuggish Playmate

thuggish, ruggish, boned

irl lol

We’ve never had a president with actual hired goons before

#morbzbait

I almost took a swing at that one myself tbh

*cough* Nixon *cough*

What do you know, not only does a new report note how fast the uninsured numbers are rising, especially among Republicans, but Tom Price just said the Republican tax cut will lead to ACA price hikes as well. Who knew?

thanks obama

This wouldn't be happening if we didn't have Obamacare.

Ah, what a follow-up.

.@KaciSokoloff just spoke w Dr. Harold Bornstein, who refused an interview but said that NBC's piece was "a pretty good story." Bornstein also said that he spoke to the NBC reporter “in the bathroom” of his office. He signed off with: "Sweetheart, this is watergate, goodbye!"

— Jacqueline Alemany (@JaxAlemany) May 1, 2018

Here's a bit.

Wow from Dep AG Rosenstein just now: “There have been people who have been making threats privately & publicly against me for quite some time & I think they should understand by now the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted.” @Newseum

— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) May 1, 2018

dammit Ned

wow

xpost Back from vacation and here to provide the 'what the' moments once more.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on @freedomcaucus members considering his impeachment: "They can't even resist leaking their own drafts." He also says, "The Department of Justice is not going to be extorted.”

Question from @lauraajarrett. pic.twitter.com/puEnP3thgA

— CSPAN (@cspan) May 1, 2018

how many nothingburgers does it take to feed a witchhunt?

"Sweetheart, this is watergate, goodbye!"

we named the thread too soon

it's been getting more Chinatown than Watergate for a while now

It's collusion! (slap) It's obstruction! (slap)

He's back!

https://www.buzzfeed.com/albertonardelli/the-professor-at-the-center-of-the-trump-russia-probe

I feel like Joel Cairo is involved in this somehow.

i know it's wrong but i want to call captain combover "propecian caesar"

The Propecian Sensation!

i know it's wrong but i want you to stop posting every dumbass unfunny nickname that occurs to you xp

for every unfunny nickname i post a million occur to me. it's like a hydra of epithets

That would be a good reason to stop, though.

Young Reg, post free tonight
I am on your side
Don't let 'em shake you down, don't let 'em push you around
Don't ever let them make you stop asking for the tax returns

It gets better!

"He dictated that whole letter. I didn't write that letter," Bornstein said on Tuesday of the letter he signed saying Trump would be the “healthiest” person ever elected as POTUS. "I just made it up as I went along." https://t.co/JfegHrQAdP

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 1, 2018

i mean duh

The constant emergence and re-emergence in the Trump saga of people who look like character actors I can't quite place does nothing to dispel the sense that this is all a big put-on.

cf that tweet about everyone in the trump admin looking like a scene stealer in a Cohen bros movie

didn't Bornstein already say that Trump had dictated his letter, like, close to inauguration?

trump lawyer jay goldberg is currently my favorite cohen brothers character. BUT there is a non-trump washington person who is currently my favorite character actor of all time. rest in peace, jim varney.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXFZWoe_wuE

i seriously can't believe that he is real sometimes when i see him on t.v.

he totally looks like someone in makeup and wig pretending to be a politician in a pauly shore movie.

he looks like Waldorf

The constant emergence and re-emergence in the Trump saga of people who look like character actors I can't quite place does nothing to dispel the sense that this is all a big put-on.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, May 1, 2018 8:12 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he looks like someone who would get cast as a politician in the cut scenes of a video game

He looks like a bug pretending to be a human, like an outtake from Cronenberg's Naked Lunch.

I love him!

He's definitely the only dude in the Trump's orbit that might be fun to hang out with

He looks like a bug pretending to be a human, like an outtake from Cronenberg's Naked Lunch.

― grawlix (unperson),

*cough ARASDRASD* sexual ambulance did you say

that was esoteric even for you Alfred

:)

but you got it!

French Stewart will get to play him in the Trump mini-series on Netflix. the role he was born to play.

We’ve never had a president with actual hired goons before

G G Liddy to reception

Richard Painter sounds like the Japanese guy in Better Off Dead who only speaks Howard Cosell-accented English

We’ve never had a president with actual hired goons before

G G Liddy to reception

― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, May 2, 2018 12:33 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Like a Swiss watch

In the early 1980s, Liddy joined forces with former Niles, Illinois, policeman and co-owner of The Protection Group, Ltd., Thomas E. Ferraro, Jr., to launch a private security and countersurveillance firm called G. Gordon Liddy & Associates. The firm was not a success, filing for bankruptcy on November 12, 1988.[23]

in a world of broken sundials, Hadrian

There was no Collusion (it is a Hoax) and there is no Obstruction of Justice (that is a setup & trap). What there is is Negotiations going on with North Korea over Nuclear War, Negotiations going on with China over Trade Deficits, Negotiations on NAFTA, and much more. Witch Hunt!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 2, 2018

trap queen

Negotiations over nuclear war? I wonder if we're pro or anti!

his addiction to Upper Casing random letters is Getting Out of Control, he'll bE GoInG fUlL SpoNgEbOb mEmE in no time

The wizard of oz reboot is weird as fuck.

One of the only things that gives me sustained faith in an ordered universe is the fact that Donald Trump will one day die. He may take us all with him when he goes, but it's a small price to pay, I think.

i wish i had your optimism, i'm not gonna truly believe trump is capable of death until he finally flatlines

no mourning!

Whomp whomp

NEW: Bloomberg: Trump’s current team of lawyers lacks the security clearances needed to discuss sensitive issues related to a possible presidential interview with Special Counsel Mueller, according to two people familiar with the matter. https://t.co/hrEIlzZARW @spettypi @cstrohm

— Evan Rosenfeld (@Evan_Rosenfeld) May 2, 2018

Talk about insult to injury.

He should probably just get a new team of lawyers. There are surely at least a dozen or so that weren't already a part of his endlessly-shuffling legal team at some point.

trump has probably enquired about the availability of perry mason at some point

I'm pretty sure if he can't find an attorney, one could be appointed to him by the court, if you get my drift.

that is exquisite

https://frinkiac.com/meme/S05E02/278377.jpg?b64lines=SSBTQVkgV0UgQ0FMTCBNQVRMT0NLLiAKSEUnTEwgRklORCBUSEUgQ1VMUFJJVC4=

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rN52sxgW4w

how many of the above scenarios have happened to people in trump's orbit over the past two years

"No! Money down!"

it is hilarious to me that jay sekulow is one of trump's lawyers, of course he would be

A Rigged System - They don’t want to turn over Documents to Congress. What are they afraid of? Why so much redacting? Why such unequal “justice?” At some point I will have no choice but to use the powers granted to the Presidency and get involved!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 2, 2018

https://www.reactiongifs.us/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/stop_dont_come_back_willy_wonka.gif

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYrXdkKQTeE

cool that the media spent two weeks talking about Hillary's pneumonia but allowed Trump to draft his own statement about his health which they just read verbatim

the statement, let's not forget, which could only have been written by trump's own unique brain worms

I suddenly wanna start calling him President Cordyceps now but at the same time I don't want to let him off the hook by blaming all of his behavior on the parasitic fungus erupting from his skull.

Wow that tweet seems to put us a clock. "At some point..."? What's he gonna do?!

xxxps Morbs Kidding aside I think there are obvious (I think important) distinctions to be made btw Nixon and Trump thugs. Liddy and Hunt et al were career, state-sanctioned thugs, crooked cops common to an *actual* deep state whose m.o. was (and remains) protracted war. As much as they were Nixon's goons they were America's. Even the so-called "third-rate burglars" were CIA! Yeah of course more insidious but they were ultimately, belatedly (meagerly) accountable to their own system's self-correction. These fuckers in Trump's orbit are straight up pirates that sailed in with him and will personally cut a man. It is new.

btw guys today is the day Dennis Miller drops his brutally mean jokes about Michelle Wolf

Hi @DennisDMZ! We know it normally takes three days but we took five minutes and wrote some jokes for you. How'd we do? pic.twitter.com/UuifUbnP7H

— Full Frontal (@FullFrontalSamB) April 30, 2018

love to see the NYT get played by the trump legal team. they leak them the questions from mueller then claim the leak is a breach of trust/rigging of the system. will the nyt burn their source here? pretty sure the answer is abso-fucking-lutely-not.

also lol at trump and his freedom caucus bros rigging document requests to be unanswerable in a reasonable amount of time then blaming the fbi for the aforementioned rigging.

lol at all of us

Cha Cha cha

I just reached Dr. Harold Bornstein on the phone and identified myself as a reporter. His response:

“Oh, you’re a reporter? Well, go back and report on how your toilet bowl works.”

He then hung up.

— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) May 2, 2018

Owned

Bornstein OTM

Ty Cobb is quitting as president pissbaby's lawyer.

SCOOP: Ty Cobb is going to retire. Will be replaced by Emmet Flood.
“It has been an honor to serve the country in this capacity at the White House,” Cobb said. “ I wish everybody well moving forward.” w/@mattapuzzo https://t.co/y2njTUrVY8

— Michael S. Schmidt (@nytmike) May 2, 2018

it's like if the wiseass of my third grade class wrote a play called "President"

so Cobb leaked those questions, didn't he

Didn't Emmet Flood play shortstop for Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics?

All baseball lawyers, all the time.

We're probably like a month out from a Trump legal team comprised entirely of dudes with ponytails.

The Trump doctor thing should probably be treated as a big deal more than “this wacky side character in the show is back” but iirc Hillary fainting that one time was treated as the much bigger persistent story than the likelihood that Trump was actively hiding his medical info with the letter everyone could tell was fake..

I may have said this before, but I'm waiting for Joe Tacopina to show up. Once you've hired Rudy Giuliani, it's a short step.

Biggest upside of the Bornstein news is the possibility that Trump might, in fact, not be the healthiest president that ever lived.

wonder if Trump asked Ronny Jax to give him a majorly clean bill of health in exchange for nominating him

I just can't get my head around fact that I get caught for forging a note from a teacher to excuse my tardiness but this guy makes an even more obvious forgery about his health and not only does he not get detention for it he becomes friggin President

Granny, it's the soft bigotry of low expectations

I thought Cobb quit weeks ago? Ot was that the other dude? It's hard to get them all straight.

By all indications those were not Mueller questions, those were sort of hypothetical summary questions written by Trump's lawyers, the sort of questions they figured Mueller might ask. So yeah, they had to have come from Trump's people. Possibly as a way to scare Trump off publicly from talking to Mueller. Which he will have to do eventually, or otherwise take the fifth. Which would be insane, which means it that's probably what we're going to get.

wonder if Trump asked Ronny Jax to give him a majorly clean bill of health in exchange for nominating him

seems pretty obvious doesn't it

PRESIDENT DEALS, BABY

xp my understanding about the questions is that 1) Mueller read them over the phone to Prez lawyers back in March, 2) that it was likely Giuliani who leaked them as soon as he showed up, in order that 3A) the president can scream "LEAK!" and 3B) in order to damage investigation by revealing information about questions to other prospective witnesses

but who the fuck knows

but who the fuck knows

Another plausible thread title

Just think: Taft was healthier than Trump. So is the dead roach I found on my balcony this morning.

Dead roach for presidetn

Would vote

Ah well

SCOOP on https://t.co/1F4iskuBMt: Cambridge Analytica is shutting down, effective today. pic.twitter.com/hZqbZiyRsA

— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) May 2, 2018

Mercers are setting up that new shop in the UK IIRC so likely just rebranding.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/05/trump-loving-rep-matt-gaetz-tries-take-selfie-students-gets-flipped-off-grade-schooler/

lol

“As the mother of the little girl very disrespectfully flipping the ‘bird’, I will be dealing with her at home tonight! I absolutely have raised her better than this, and I promise this will NEVER happen again!” she wrote. “I have been dealing with her wanting to ‘fit in’ and I promise you, I am livid. Political views aside, this is completely unacceptable. Mr. Gaetz, I apologize on behalf of my daughter. I am very sorry this occurred.”

"congrats it's pizza night!"

"Next time she will flip him off *and* throw a shoe at him!"

Summer Zervos, a former contestant on “The Apprentice” who accused President Trump of sexual assault, is seeking records to prove that he defamed her by calling her a liar.

A lawyer for Ms. Zervos, who is suing Mr. Trump for defamation in New York, said on Wednesday that subpoenas had been issued both to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which owns archives of the reality show, and to the Beverly Hills Hotel, where Ms. Zervos says he groped her in 2007.

...

In the subpoena issued Wednesday, Ms. Wang asked M.G.M. to turn over all documents, video or audio that feature Ms. Zervos or Mr. Trump talking about Ms. Zervos. The subpoena also seeks any recording in which Mr. Trump speaks of women “in any sexual or inappropriate manner.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/02/nyregion/summer-zervos-trump-apprentice.html

I've long thought of the Zervos suit as a sort of dark horse in all this. The fact that she generally has been getting less attention I think has more to do with her wanting less attention and less to do with the merits of her case.

I believe that case was discussed on the Mic Dicta podcast (ep 11, I think?) for those interested in the legal minutiae

Ty Cobb, YER OUT! Caught stealing?

Once

It appears China has stopped buying soybeans from the US altogether because of trade fight https://t.co/9ts7ylrTvj

— CNBC (@CNBC) May 2, 2018

the china gig has been cancelled

what?

yeah i wouldnt worry about it. china is not a big soy town

I don't want to kill my China gig

Farmers "are great patriots," Trump said at the White House. "They understand that they're doing this for the country. And we'll make it up to them. And, in the end, they're going to be much stronger than they are right now."

Was it the WaPo or Times - or somewhere else? - that posted a story on how Trump has entered a peak empty promise "we'll see" stage?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/02/us/politics/trump-well-see-what-happens.html

Trade clashes with Europe are brewing. Border tensions with Mexico are boiling. Negotiations with North Korea and Iran are murky as ever. What can Americans expect in these uncertain times?

We’ll see what happens.

President Trump, a new-to-the-game politician who once campaigned on a promise of “I alone can fix it,” has spent the past month speaking with a decidedly less definitive stance, shrugging off a series of diplomatic high-wire acts that may come to define his presidency with a bit of well-worn Trumpese.

“We’ll see,” when a reporter asked Mr. Trump on Tuesday whether he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to arrange peace talks between North and South Korea.

“We’ll see what happens, I often say,” the president said a day earlier about relations with North Korea, apparently aware of his tendency to take an indefinite view on timely negotiations.

“So the end result is, we’ll see,” Mr. Trump said last week, again broaching the summit meeting with North Korea.

At least two dozen times in the past month, the president appears to have shifted into full-on verbal tic mode, deploying some variation of “We’ll see what happens” as a cast of world leaders from France, the Baltic States, Japan and Nigeria rotated in and out of the White House or his Florida estate. Mr. Trump’s one-person guessing game came into play as he addressed topics including Mexico, Nafta, Russia, Amazon, North Korea, Mike Pompeo, Dr. Ronny L. Jackson, Iran and the special counsel’s investigation into his presidential campaign.

Farmers "are great patriots," Trump said at the White House. "They understand that they're doing this for the country. And we'll make it up to them. And, in the end, they're going to be much stronger than they are right now."

I'm gonna assume this will be tax cuts or some bullshit and people will be forced to say 'thank you for your service' to fuckin farmers

I don't think it's that sophisticated, I see it as damage control for all the tariff-backlash that's happening right now:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bunge-results/trade-tensions-crimp-us-soybean-sales-to-china-bunge-ceo-idUSKBN1I318R

I just assume the GOP answer to every problem is a tax cut so might as well throw it out there

Maybe time to unleash our secret weapon, and I don't mean Nobel laureate Bob Dylan
https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2018/01/soy_bomb.jpg

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/2gtheh53vpgcwc2/20180502_182631.jpg?dl=0

Lol, getting my Bob Dylan referencing threads confused....

Fun times!

Michael Caputo, just interviewed by Bob Mueller’s team, told me: “It’s clear they are still really focused on Russia collusion. ... They know more about the Trump campaign than anyone who ever worked there.” He didn’t want to discuss specifics

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 2, 2018

He added: ”The Senate and the House are net fishing,” Caputo said. “The special counsel is spearfishing. They know what they are aiming at and are deadly accurate.”

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 2, 2018

China has stopped buying soybeans from the US altogether because of trade fight

I am working on a "shouldn't Kikkoman when he's down" joke" but am not sure of the right framing.

Well kikkoman is Japanese but as an azn person I enjoy the effort

I had to google Michael Caputo, because who can remember who all these mooks are. Somehow missed his statement to the senate intelligence panel yesterday!

'In 2009, my wife and I moved to my hometown of East Aurora, New York to have a family. Making far less money back home, we had a far better quality of life. That is, until the Trump-Russia narrative took off. Today, I can’t possibly pay the attendant legal costs and live near my aging father, raising my kids where I grew up.

'Your investigation and others into the allegations of Trump campaign collusion with Russia are costing my family a great deal of money – more than $125,000 - and making a visceral impact on my children.

'Now I must to move back to Washington, New York City, Miami or elsewhere, just so I can make enough money to pay off these legal bills. And I know I have you to thank for that.
'Here’s how I know: how many of you know Daniel Jones, former Senate Intelligence staffer for Senator Dianne Feinstein? Great guy, right? Most of you worked with him. One of you probably just talked to him this morning.

'Of course, very few of us in flyover country knew Daniel until recently. Now we know that he quit his job with your Senate committee not long ago to raise $50 million from ten rich Democrats to finance more work on the FusionGPS Russian dossier. The one the FBI used to get a FISA warrant and intimidate President Donald Trump, without anyone admitting -- until months after it was deployed -- that it was paid for by Hillary Clinton.

'In fact, good old Dan has been raising and spending millions to confirm the unconfirmable – and, of course, to keep all his old intel colleagues up-to-speed on what FusionGPS and British and Russian spies have found. Got to keep that Russia story in the news.

'Of course Dan’s in touch with you guys. We know from the news that he’s been briefing Senator Mark Warner, vice chairman of this committee. Which one of you works for Senator Warner? Please give Danny my best.

'I saw some of his handiwork just last month. Remember this lede paragraph, from McClatchy on April 13?
'The Justice Department special counsel has evidence that Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and confidant, Michael Cohen, secretly made a late-summer trip to Prague during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to two sources familiar with the matter. 'That’s your pal Dan, isn’t it? He came up with some kind of hollow proof that Michael Cohen was in Prague meeting with Russians when he wasn’t. He tried to sell that to reporters, and they didn’t buy it because it doesn’t check out. So, to get a reporter to write up his line of bull, he gave the documents to the Office of Special Counsel.
'We know that’s likely, because he’s told people he’s briefing investigators.
'So, technically, the special counsel’s office has evidence. Your pal Dan gave them more of the Democrats’ dossier, funded by more Democrats, provided again by Russian and British spies. Information no reporter would write up, but now there’s an angle: the Special Counsel has it. Now it’s a story.
'It’s a clever but effective ruse. That’s a story, just like when reporter Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News wrote this gem on September 16, 2016:
'“…U.S. officials have since received intelligence reports that during that same three-day trip, Page met with Igor Sechin, a longtime Putin associate … a well-placed Western intelligence source tells Yahoo News. That meeting, if confirmed, is viewed as especially problematic by U.S. officials…”
'Dozens of stories were written from the Isikoff piece, doing real damage to the Trump campaign. Of course, now we know Isikoff’s reference to “intelligence reports” was just him renaming a dossier funded by Democrats and dug up by his longtime pal Glenn Simpson and some foreign spies. Once Simpson gave his Clinton campaign opposition research to the feds, it was news.
'This was especially true after Isikoff intentionally labeled the campaign materials as intelligence – just like McClatchy called Dan’s information “evidence.”
'But who is McClatchy’s second source? It couldn’t be Dan; he was the first source. It couldn’t be Simpson; he works for Dan. It can’t be the Mueller investigation; they kicked the McClatchy story to the curb with aplomb. So who could it be – perhaps one of his former Senate Intelligence colleagues? I mean, you’re all in this together. You’re the swamp.
'What America needs is an investigation of the investigators. I want to know who is paying for the spies’ work and coordinating this attack on President Donald Trump? I want to know who Dan Jones is talking to across the investigations – from the FBI, to the Southern District of New York, to the OSC, to the Department of Justice, to Congress.
'Forget about all the death threats against my family. I want to know who cost us so much money, who crushed our kids, who forced us out of our home, all because you lost an election.

'I want to know because God Damn you to Hell.'

whoa that's amazing

off-topic, but I really love East Aurora

fuck Caputo

"flyover country" seems like a bit of a reach tho tbh

I am no fan of people being ruined by the legal system, but if there's anyone I want ruined by the legal system, it's these Trump assholes.

I want their assholes ruined by the legal system.

...wait hold on.

Boom. Giuliani just told Hannity that Trump paid Cohen back the 130k for the Stormy agreement.

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) May 3, 2018

O_O

oh man.

Also

1. On Hannity, Giuliani says that Trump fired Comey because he wouldn't say publicly that he wasn't a target of the investigation. Giuliani added that he thought the Lester Holt interview went well.

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) May 3, 2018

Here is the moment Rudy Giuliani, while sounding like the old, incoherent guy at the end of the bar admitting that Trump repaid Michael Cohen the 30,000 in Stormy Daniels hush money. pic.twitter.com/zageA4IiBe

— Erick Fernandez (@ErickFernandez) May 3, 2018

Classic mayor of america moment

Even Ingraham's all 'uh'

We'll unpack key moments from @seanhannity intvw with @realDonaldTrump legal team member Rudy G. He said that @potus reimbursed him for Stormy D. payment--but on April 6, Trump said he didn't know abt the payment.

— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) May 3, 2018

I'm not a lawyer but that seems like a dumb thing to say on television

Skeletor starting to slip a little in his dotage

wasn't it Rudy mouthing off about the Muslim ban on TV that got it struck down the first time?

yeah he certainly helped

One thing among many xp

Hiring Rudy was yet another beautiful Trumpian self-own, I see.

I was actually thinking that this is a smart strategic move on Rudy's part, isn't it? If he says Trump paid Cohen back personally, then he makes them look like liars, and more or less concedes he hooked up with Stormy, but those things aren't illegal, and his fans don't care. But I guess they'd still have to prove that Trump personally and not his campaign paid back Cohen. Plus, Stormy is suing for defamation, so this only helps her case.

1/2. We predicted months ago that it would be proven that the American people had been lied to as to the 30k payment and what Mr. Trump knew, when he knew it and what he did in connection with it. Every American, regardless of their politics, should be outraged...

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) May 3, 2018

2/2. ...by what we have now learned. Mr. Trump stood on AF1 and blatantly lied. This followed the lies told by others close to him, including Mr. Cohen. This should never be acceptable in our America. We will not rest until justice is served. #basta

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) May 3, 2018

The smart strategic move is to STFU and not go on TV.

Well, yeah.

90% of Trump's compounding problems stem from not knowing when or how to STFU.

I think % is lower because obv Twitter also causing him a lot of problems as well as the incompetent scumbags he’s surrounded himself with.

Every American should be outraged every time Trump lies, but it's tough to keep those fires stoked when he does it as frequently as breathing.

Actually, every American should actually probably be outraged every time Trump breathes.

i am

Oh, wait - Yashar Ali:

Problem with this is if the feds deem @StormyDaniels payment to be an election related expense, Trump would have still been required to file an in-kind contribution report as part of his FEC campaign filings. He would be required by law to report it.

don't worry, nothing any trump surrogate says on TV will make any difference, even admitting to multiple crimes, nothing matters, let's move on

like xp 'OMg trump... broke the rules!!!' lol like is that gonna stop anything at this point except invoke umbrage

Harvey Levin is gonna end up representing​ Trump.

It gets stupider

Giuliani tells me he just spoke w / POTUS. Tonight by phone. President "very pleased," Giuliani says. He says they discussed his revelation of the reimbursements long in advance. Does not expect to be fired. Insists his remarks on FNC were approved by Trump. Story TK.

— Robert Costa (@costareports) May 3, 2018

Mariotti's take on the above

On the one hand, Giuliani managed to draw attention back to the Stormy Daniels lawsuit even though the judge put it on hold! That’s something.

But as a legal position it’s probably better for them to end the charade that Trump didn’t know. Now it’s not a “contribution” by Cohen. https://t.co/CFirBgDqLp

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) May 3, 2018

His hardcore supporters won't turn on him for anything he does, his hardcore detractors likewise won't cut him slack for anything he does, most reasonable people seem to agree that he's insulated enough that he'll probably make it through the end of his only term as president without being impeached. And he's old and unhealthy and will probably die before the law has a chance to really sink its teeth into him. Everyone expects him to be the worst. He's in a prime position to just be the worst, blatantly and openly and without giving a fuck. And yet he continues to lie, badly, about the dumbest and most pointless shit. People have learned to see right through it at this point because he's so bad at it. And yet he persists.

I just

Rudy Giuliani told me that while @realDonaldTrump reimbursed Cohen for the 30k SD payment, POTUS didn’t know what the money was used for. Giuliani says Cohen merely told the President he had “expenses” for which POTUS reimbursed him.

— John Roberts (@johnrobertsFox) May 3, 2018

xp whatever Trump does that ends up having generally more favorable consequences than detrimental ones can be reasonably attributed to dumb luck. I'll accept them as a serendipitous accident, but can only credit him as being the instrument of fate, rather than the conscious author of good deeds.

This is insane: https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/columnists/nancy-kaffer/2018/05/01/medicaid-work-requirements-gop/569760002/

Mr. Cohen, an attorney, received a monthly retainer, not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign, from which he entered into, through reimbursement, a private contract between two parties, known as a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA. These agreements are.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2018

...very common among celebrities and people of wealth. In this case it is in full force and effect and will be used in Arbitration for damages against Ms. Clifford (Daniels). The agreement was used to stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her about an affair,......

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2018

...despite already having signed a detailed letter admitting that there was no affair. Prior to its violation by Ms. Clifford and her attorney, this was a private agreement. Money from the campaign, or campaign contributions, played no roll in this transaction.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2018

stating publicly that there was no affair and you just randomly gave this lady 130k seems like not the best legal strategy

Michael Avenatti is the luckiest damn lawyer on the planet

wow it's really something that his lawyers very plainly stepped into the twitter account for that 3-tweet statement huh?

probably wrote "roll" to make it sound like it was him

You gotta roll with it
You gotta take your time
You gotta say what you say
Don't let anybody get in your way
'Cause it's all too much for me to take

from which he entered into

Not enough random capitalization, imo. Try again, Rudy.

Why does he (his lawyers) feel the need to offer that examination at all? Not a single person on earth doubts her story, nor does anyone blv he wrote that tweet. Just keep your mouth and move on!

Can't wait until the goalposts have shifted to the 'just the tip' phase of this increasingly-flimsy defense.

Maybe they'll argue that Trump is just too well-endowed to have made sexual intercourse physically possible in the first place.

its baffling. doesn't this turn the defamation suit into a slam dunk? surely even Trump must realize that just admitting to an affair which NONE OF YOUR SUPPORTERS WILL CARE ABOUT is better than dragging this out even further by telling everyone that you're an idiot who just randomly paid six figures for literally no reason

no, he paid the money because she was extorting him! instead of reporting it to the cops he gave her a six-figure sum! PRESIDENT DEALS, BABY!

honest to god all i want is to stop being surprised by just how dumb trump and his coterie of gibbering mutants are willing to make themselves look in public

dreams unwind / love's a state of mind

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/imagine-hillarys-with-increasingly-fanciful-endings

Seriously, every incredibly dumb sitcom character whose stupidity strained all credulity has now been surpassed IRL by President Stupid and the Dipshit Bunch.

Meanwhile on TV

Giuliani makes a link back to the campaign:

GIULIANI: ...Imagine if that came out on Oct. 15, 2016, in the middle of the last debate with Hillary Clinton?
Q: So to make it go away, they made this deal?
GIULIANI: Cohen didn't even ask. Cohen made it go away. He didn't even ask.

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 3, 2018

jesus fucking christ can this daily nightmare of corrupt idiocy just END already

man giuliani's brain worms are really giving trump's a run for their money huh

Hey, Kellyanne's husband is having fun again

https://t.co/bsZKAUJpu3 pic.twitter.com/xJgZXrvSuT

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) May 3, 2018

Meanwhile on the office morale front

Trump’s mild response to Kelly’s reported “idiot” comment reflected a kind of cold truce between two powerful and mercurial men who have grown tired and irritated with each other, but are in no immediate rush to part ways. @maggienyt @juliehdavis https://t.co/QOFZAmmNCN

— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) May 3, 2018

if there's one thing trump knows inside out it's bad marriages

(Perhaps not very) curiously, Trump has yet to personally attack Avenatti, right?

Haven't seen it.

Huh.

Let's poke the bear and see what happens!

MORE fun

Giuliani on Fox Business:

“Would Tom Brokaw have paid it if it kept his reputation? Did other people pay money like this?...I'm a lawyer. I have settled cases for people that are innocent, for people that are partly innocent, for people that are guilty. It's equally damaging.“ pic.twitter.com/naauUBJYbG

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) May 3, 2018

Giuliani: "I certainly can't tell you about that illegal repayment of hush money by my client. Oh crap, I shouldn't have said 'illegal repayment.' Oh crap, I used the term 'hush money.' Oh crap, I shouldn't have confirmed he was my client!" cc: @thatbilloakley @Joshstrangehill pic.twitter.com/rmrWbr4axO

— ⅔ Of My Face is a Cat (@snowballmaggie) May 3, 2018

'I could be betting on a full house, a pair of aces, or a handful of garbage cards. You don't know. (shows hand to all players) I'd bet the same way regardless. (passes his cards around the table to make sure everyone gets a really good look at them) You really just never know. (winks knowingly)'

Trump era strategizing: loudly declaring your intelligence while cutting off your own face and trusting that your assertions will actually resonate with a certain number of people despite glaring evidence to the contrary.

This chess goes to eleven Ds.

keep the scandals rolling as non-stop distraction while cutting taxes and regulations // dazzle them with bullshit while drowning the american government in a bathtub

Or it's just this

WH aide is bewildered this AM by Giuliani but says many on staff now feels like they’re not in control of the situation. Aide says POTUS and Giuliani are “running” their own strategy and have a generational rapport and shared grievances/perspectives....

— Robert Costa (@costareports) May 3, 2018

grievances did you say

not in control of a situation you say

Chaps their hides

It's been surreal for 15 months but now it's kind of off the surreal map, even. Good luck USA.

Septuagenarians gonna septuagna...wh-what was I saying again? Oh, right. Where is President Oblama's birth certificate?!

Research by the Democratic super PAC Priorities USA has consistently pointed to the limits of targeting the spectacle of Trump. “I don’t think Stormy Daniels is going to produce one additional vote in almost any race that we run in 2018,” says Guy Cecil, who is overseeing the digital spending for the outside House and Senate Democratic groups this year. ...For this year's midterms, Democrats more or less know who they are: They are running to provide a check on Republican power, an idea that plays well even in red states like Tennessee, according to internal party polls. Democrats plan to focus on pointing to alleged Republican failures — the rising health-care costs, the tax cuts going disproportionately to the wealthy, the threat of more entitlement cuts. from the Washington Post Daily 202 Wed. May 2

I'm certainly not seeing Chuck 'n' Nancy in front of the cameras much saying so!

Are people even going to remember the putative purpose of having a POTUS by the time 2020 rolls around?

generational rapport and shared grievances/perspectives is an awesome way of saying they're 2 old bitter fucks

Wasn't Generation Rapport one of the villains in Fury Road?

curious how long the stock market can stay stuck at thanksgiving 2017 and the real rich people will keep letting 2scoops play president

curmugeon's quote otm
all the All the President's Men cosplay we do every day on Twitter ain't doing shit

correct

^^^

not that i'm going to stop!

An alternate take is that by not speaking up in one way or another about the abnormality of the situation, we help to facilitate the extent to which it becomes normalized. I'm still not sure we fully appreciate how easily that can happen (and has happened).

they are running to provide a check on Republican power, an idea that plays well even in red states like Tennessee, according to internal party polls. Democrats plan to focus on pointing to alleged Republican failures — the rising health-care costs, the tax cuts going disproportionately to the wealthy, the threat of more entitlement cuts.

idk guys this is still pretty reactionary, and predicated on "we're going to stop republicans making your life worse," not "democrats have a plan to make your life better"

agreed

Yes, many awful half measures will be justified in the years to come on the basis that they're less bad than what the current administration is doing.

Nobody will be persuaded to vote democrat because of Stormy Daniels, but surely the point is reducing enthusiasm among evangelicals? If he were shown to have had an affair or even procured an abortion would that not keep at least some of them at home on election day?

sounds like a winning strategy

Camaraderie, I don't really know, but this is one argument for why that might not: http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2018/04/president_trumps_stormy_daniel.html#incart_river_index

If only human beings were capable of undertaking more than one strategy at a time.

Imagine, if you can.

Yes, many awful half measures will be justified in the years to come on the basis that they're less bad than what the current administration is doing.

― Love Theme From Oh God! You Devil (Old Lunch), Thursday, May 3, 2018 10:55 AM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

along these same lines, I was randomly taken with the terrifying conviction last night that the Dems are going to nominate Joe Biden for prez because the party is going to be obsessed with beating and memory-holing Trump above all else and Biden's their best avatar of the myths of Returning to Consensus in Washington and Institutions Still Matter.

septuagenarian sex pest (r) vs septuagenarian sex pest (d)

2020: A NATION DECIDES

Wow @ that link Sund4r, American evangelicals are definitely beyond anything I can imagine.

Totally agree that "we have a better plan" > "we won't screw up as badly" btw

Priorities USA doesn’t write the platform or the speeches or the GOTV plan. They’re a bunch of bundlers. When they cold-call and spam rich people they want bland pablum talking points - so that’s how they shape their polling and that’s how they write their PR.

But if you are interested in a SuperPAC spokesperson who trumpets federal job guarantees and massive infrastructure investments paid for by taxing the shit out of Silicon Valley fat cats, well, have I got a bridge for you

Nobody will be persuaded to vote democrat because of Stormy Daniels, but surely the point is reducing enthusiasm among evangelicals? If he were shown to have had an affair or even procured an abortion would that not keep at least some of them at home on election day?

It's not just about the fucking evangelicals, it's about reducing enthusiasm across the GOP board. In other words, persuaded to vote democrat =/= as staying home but they might as well be the same thing. All these "blue wave" elections we've been seeing, Dem enthusiasm and participation is outstripping GOP. The evangelicals are just a small part of that republican apathy. People can be tried and true GOP assholes and still stay home, and that's as good as a changed mind, at least when it comes to a single, absolutely essential and potential historic election.

not making life worse is actually a pretty compelling argument to me

not to be a dem apologist, but if they were out there touting policy would the media give a fuck and take a break from the trump puke funnel for more than 10 seconds? for all we know they are out there trying to push stuff like this but nobody cares.

Strictly speaking it's half as good as a changed mind.

Really not sure about this Eurythmics reunion.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DcSQR21V0AAsMuZ.jpg:large

Dems shouldn’t talk about the unpopular president that their voters hate.

Also worth noting that as much hand-wringing the Dems may do about this, when they've interviewed voters after the last several special elections and asked them what motivated them, Trump loomed awfully large in their answers.

not to be a dem apologist, but if they were out there touting policy would the media give a fuck and take a break from the trump puke funnel for more than 10 seconds? for all we know they are out there trying to push stuff like this but nobody cares.

I specifically remember CNN airing footage of an empty podium that Trump was due to speak at over a policy speech that Hillary was giving. I think you know the answer.

Yam & Adolph Giuliani: the shared perspectives of terrible SNL hosts

there is a lot fucked up about this executive order but I think this is the most fucked-up tendril of it

Federal agencies that don’t already have faith centers must establish a liaison to the new White House initiative.

— NPR (@NPR) May 3, 2018

(the sole bright spot is that this administration has proven pretty bad at staffing anything up, so there's a good chance it won't happen, but...)

this administration has proven pretty bad at staffing anything up

unfortunately they have proven to be excellent at appointing judges

Is this shit even constitutional?

nothing matters. republicans worship wealth so much they bow down even before its not-terribly convincing appearance. everyone else is just like whatever, i'll still listen to kanye. tax cuts are the only thing the american government does anymore, and blowing up trade and arms deals, and blowing oil companies. #MAGA

'Check GOP Power' is a fine line for midterms. 'Better Deal' should be required in 2020 and of course not called that.

The BEST Deal

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/8grwrb/feds_tapped_trump_lawyer_michael_cohens_phones/?st=jgqs5xh2&sh=b079fd2b

not the stupid thread

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/feds-tapped-trump-lawyer-michael-cohen-s-phones-n871011

Lordy there are tapes

Oh damnit that’s the first response on the thread

It is *hard* to obtain a wiretap. This was vetted by supervisors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, specialized lawyers at the Justice Department, and by a Deputy Assistant Attorney General, and a judge. Given who Cohen is, it’s hard to believe Rosenstein was not consulted as well. https://t.co/GM0hK5Ipfx

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) May 3, 2018

unfortunately they have proven to be excellent at appointing judges

The Federalist Society had their lists of recommended judicial appointments all prepared and ready even before Obama was elected and they keep them up-to-date. It's like the NYT having obits written for celebrities that they can pull off the shelf. Trump is just acting as a glorified messenger boy for them. They hand him a name off the list and he hands it on to Congress.

and not one single bit of that matters once these people are in there for life

but thanks for the predictably condescending "explanation"

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c9/Michael_Jackson_-_Man_in_the_Mirror.png/220px-Michael_Jackson_-_Man_in_the_Mirror.png

i'm assuming the faith initiative extends to islam, buddhism, judaism, etc ...

Islam? Sure...

It would be amazing and, most amazingly of all, not impossible if when this mess is resolved by Mueller or NYC or whomever, all these chumps get indicted for something we at this moment have absolutely no idea even exists.

At this point I'd be surprised if there are ever going to be any negative consequences whatsoever for these two bit grifters.

I know my cynicism at this point is unhelpful, but I'm so tired of the cycle of "BOOM! This is it, this is the huge one" tweets that lead to absolutely... nothing. It's exhausting.

I've said it before, but what's exhausting is that ... not a day goes by where things don't get worse for Trump. Will it take him down? Who knows. But there has not been a single week, let alone day, without more bad news, not a single (as far as I can remember) exculpatory report. It has only been going one way, for months, which is quite remarkable. And it's also worth remarking, as bears repeating, that there have been several indictments and guilty pleas already, and those in the latter category were all attained through leverage to make them turn on, as far as we know, people who may not be indicted yet. And as for the Cohen stuff, that is NYC, not Washington, which gives me a lot more faith in a fruitful result.

we'll all be relieved when high-class grifters are restored to their proper place

This is flashing me back to a more innocent disgusting time, but I still look forward to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mADKkdyMHUQ

Full Mariotti thread re wiretap news

THREAD: What does news that Michael Cohen was wiretapped tell us about the investigation of him? (Short answer: A lot.)

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) May 3, 2018

Mariotti explains The wire

So well organized

WH lawyers McGahn and Flood were not aware that Trump repaid Cohen 30,000 for Stormy Daniels hush money until Giuliani said so on Fox https://t.co/ZPN8z0AuRT

— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) May 3, 2018

Rudy has always been kind of a dumbass along with being an instinctive authoritarian

that's about the 4th tweet from journalists I've seen using the figure 30,000. I thought it was $130,000?

but I'm so tired of the cycle of "BOOM! This is it, this is the huge one" tweets that lead to absolutely... nothing

this is fundamentally misreading the situation imo. A lot has happened, and the administration is crippled and ineffective at achieving GOP legislative and administrative goals.

Rudy is an inept authoritarian though.

there is a wide range of developments that fall on a spectrum between "nothing" and "fascist asshole murdered by angry mob" (with the latter being the optimal outcome we're all praying for obviously)

xp

that's about the 4th tweet from journalists I've seen using the figure 30,000. I thought it was $130,000?

Rudy is an inept authoritarian though.

just like his new boss

RG did manage to get elected in NYC twice, albeit with all-white support in Staten Island and Queens

Democrats sick of black people in the city helped Rudy in the early nineties.

i always forget about Rudy and Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken. he DID put a lot of people in jail. brings me back to those good ol' daily news and post days.

he did a number on the mob too. he was no slouch with them.

but that was a long time ago...

It’s a display issue in Zing. The sources are using the right number.

― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Thursday, May 3, 2018 11:40 AM (twenty-eight minutes ago)

nope, it's a site code rendering... feature.

Koch liked cocktail parties and Dinkins was black. That's why we have Giuliani. Don't bother with the "tough on crime" business, either. He put his finger on a button that was already pressed.

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) May 3, 2018

generally speaking i think mayoral elections are where politics sometimes go out the window for people. on a national or global scale there are plenty of people on the left who will never vote Republican, but for city elections it can be a very different story, and they view the phrase "tough on crime" on a local level more positively and tend to accept the type of shit they'd be aghast at being deployed in a more widespread way. it's almost a reverse "not in my backyard" attitude.

tough on generational wealth

Well well

BREAKING: Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Thursday filed a request for 70 blank subpoenas in the Virginia court presiding over one of two criminal proceedings involving former Trump campaign chairman Paul #Manafort. https://t.co/9NHsSBIhYI
STORY DEVELOPING.

— Brandi Buchman (@BBuchman_CNS) May 3, 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDT19fU3a9I

I see SOMEONE'S testy.

!
Sarah Sanders: "You don’t know much about me in terms of what I feel and what I don’t."

— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) May 3, 2018

Ah, this will move the ticker:

I hate to lose. So I'm gonna go out on a limb here and ask the people of West Virginia to make a wise decision and reject Blankenship!

No more fumbles like Alabama. We need to win in November. #wv #wvpol

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 3, 2018

lol robots don't have feelings

xp

Huh.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/03/house-chaplain-rescinds-resignation-567377

70 subpoenas? Do you need to file a unique subpoena for every document (say) that you're looking for? Or can't you just file a subpoena asking for all documents pertaining to x?

those 70 blank subpoenas aren't news. you need to subpoena someone to appear at trial so its mostly clerical work, not digging up anything new.

that number also seems high. I doubt mueller will have 70 witnesses.

"The two-page filing doesn’t offer much in the way of details, but each subpoena orders the recipient to appear at the federal courthouse in Alexandria on July 10 at 10 a.m. to testify at Manafort’s trial on charges stemming from Mueller’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election."

Oh man. From Father Conroy's letter rescinding his resignation. pic.twitter.com/GQx7Xb02c1

— Jim Newell (@jim_newell) May 3, 2018

Mariotti re subpeonas

This means he will subpoena documents and witnesses in relation to the Virginia criminal case against Manafort. https://t.co/fTSSB95iSN

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) May 3, 2018

So, 70 may encompass a number of things, not just people.

tweets that lead to absolutely... nothing.

Isn't that SOP for tweets?

So, 70 may encompass a number of things, not just people.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, May 3, 2018 8:21 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it must be something they already have through another source and want to make sure the records they use are authenticated properly. there's no way you'd ask for new documents right on the eve of trial if you don't know what they are.

Father Conroy and I probably disagree on a lot but good job padre

Here's the full thing

Full letter from the Chaplain rescinding his resignation. pic.twitter.com/n3AloHkQWS

— Lauren Fox (@FoxReports) May 3, 2018

i guess that's why you tender resignations effective future-date

whoa: NBC is correcting its wiretap story on MSNBC right now, saying it was not a wiretap on Cohen phone. Says it was instead a log of phone calls known as a "pen register," so couldn't listen in

good job nbc

On the plus side, it was fun to watch and hear all the usual suspects freak out for a bit.

Dare I say...that itself might be useful for the future.

damn though, nbc. that seems like a pretty important detail to get wrong.

For fun!

NEWS: Blankenship intensifies racial attack vs. McConnell - goes after GOP leader's "China family" in new TV ad https://t.co/IqLXxNyFqy

— Alex Isenstadt (@politicoalex) May 3, 2018

His defense was among the worst of any defense I've heard for such a thing. Something like, "I don't see the big deal. If you are from China you are a China-man. I am an America-man. If you were from India you would be an India-man." Something like that.

IDGI. Blankenship seems monstrous on every conceivable level. You'd think Trump would have a massive man-crush on him. Is his opposition just reverse psychology? I can't even discern the parameters of the chessboard anymore, man.

because he will lose in a general election and the GOP wants to take out Manchin duh

I'm a business, man.

the whole thing is just totally disingenuous race-mongering anyway, Blankenship's own fiancee was born in China and he publicly stated not so long ago that he was considering moving there/getting dual citizenship

xp

Don't want to link to it, but that Fox guy Neil Cavuto just unleashed a long (but fair and balanced!) Trump rant that more or less ends with calling him the source of the swamp stink.

Also, Avenatti claims that there were extensive conversations between Cohen and that other lawyer who used to represent Daniels in advance of the election, about the timing of the payments. That I will link to:

Still chasing ambulances. But I took a break to wrap this one up nice and neat for you Mr. Giuliani. #basta https://t.co/wpgevmJ1FB

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) May 4, 2018

It confirms what I suspected:

We recently asked people who cast ballots for both Mr. Obama and Mr. Trump to describe how they felt about the president and the Democratic Party ahead of the midterms. In interviews with 38 voters in 14 states across four months, a clear pattern emerged. Voters said they did not like Mr. Trump as a person and did not consider themselves die-hard supporters. Some were even embarrassed by him.

But many were basically satisfied with his policies. The tax bill was mildly positive, they said. Several had a bit of extra money in their paycheck. They liked that he was trying to address illegal immigration. Only a few regretted their vote.

Voters said they still liked Mr. Obama and that they voted for Mr. Trump because they didn’t want to cast a ballot for Hillary Clinton. But they were still open to voting for Democrats — if the party could come up with the right candidates. For the most part, the midterm elections were not yet on their radars.

“Honestly, it hasn’t crossed my mind really at all,” Ms. Baker said, when asked about them.

fucking idiots

sorry

Ms. Burgraff did not like how Mr. Trump kept falsely asserting that Mr. Obama was not born in the United States.

“How could that have been anything but racism?” she said.

Still, on Election Day 2016, Ms. Burgraff voted for Mr. Trump, if reluctantly. She believed he was the better choice. And looking back she does not regret it. The tax bill has given her an extra $400 a month in her paycheck.

“I pulled the lever for Trump, and I’m not sorry I did,” she said over lunch in Chillicothe in March. She said she planned to vote this fall for her Republican congressman, Brad Wenstrup.

Still, on Election Day 2016, Ms. Burgraff voted for Mr. Trump, if reluctantly.

not sorry

"The tax bill has given her an extra $400 a month in her paycheck"

who the fuck are these people? I get like, an extra $14.

People whose withholding adjustments are way off and are going to end up owing money at the end of the year?

I'm just gonna call Webster's real quick and have them swap out the definition of 'nihilism' with the passage Alfred just posted.

when gas hits $3 this summer I bet it actually will convince a few of these folks

2020: Vote for the Racist!

2019, condemn the racist. 2020, close your eyes and unapologetically pull that lever for the racist. Because why not.

Here's some fun

NEWS: In a conversation last night with @DonnyDeustch, Trump attorney Michael Cohen says "Rudy Giuliani doesn't know what he's talking about" regarding the President's repayment of the Stormy Daniels hush money.

— Willie Geist (@WillieGeist) May 4, 2018

Trump 2020: What's the Worst That Can Happen (To Me)?

Imagine all the coughs and looking into corners of the room at this meeting.

Interesting. President Trump met yesterday with Sessions, Nielsen, Coats, Kelly, Bolton, McGahn and Wray "to discuss the Administration’s efforts to bolster the security of the Nation’s election systems, including enhanced protections against malign foreign influence."

— Monica Alba (@albamonica) May 4, 2018

we must cease all efforts at once!

I don't know, I bet it was pretty straightforward.

1) Ban Muslims
2) Jail people for marijuana offenses
3) Ban transgender troops
4) lower taxes
5) Jail Hillary/Comey
6) Fire Rosenstein/Mueller

There, elections secured!

Malign domestic influence (ours) ONLY.

Michael Caputo, a former Trump campaign aide, said that special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has more knowledge about the Trump campaign than any staff member of the campaign, and has a plethora of documentation.

“They have all the documents that were produced,” Caputo told Fox News host Martha MacCallum Thursday evening. “They’ve got further documentation from people who worked outside the campaign — their emails, their texts. They have the entire campaign’s texts.”

“The Mueller investigation really wasn’t trying to find something,” Caputo added. “Every question they asked, they already have the answer to.”

'will this witness lie when we question them?'

Guarantee you $400/mo tax lady was lying

Joke's on them, Trump never even read any of that shit!

Yeah wtf. I haven't heard of anyone making more than like 60 bux extra a paycheck.

xp

i got a hundred-ish dollar bump at my teaching job but i get paid monthly, so

Meanwhile at the Legion of Doom in Utah:

“My favorite meat is hot dog, by the way. That is my favorite meat” Romney said. “My second favorite meat is hamburger. And everyone says, oh don’t you prefer steak? It’s like, I know steaks are great but I like hot dog best and I like hamburger next best” https://t.co/DbYn951L9k

— Matt Viser (@mviser) May 4, 2018

Why do so many GOP-ers have the speech patterns of a five-year-old?

I'd rather have, like, bridges that don't collapse than an extra $60 a paycheck but I'm a commie I guess

'My favorite shape is round, and I like straight shapes next best. Squiggle shapes are the least bestest of shapes.'

That Mitt thing reads like a Clickhole celebrity quote.

Mitt Romney 2018: Everyone Loves a Wiener

reminds me of something i read in 2012 about how mitt romney talks about literally everything as if it’s been optimized for his enjoyment

he is such a moron

Is he quoting his basset hound?

Trump says Rudy Giuliani just started and "he'll get his facts straight" pic.twitter.com/Mxju5SfwEY

— David Taintor (@davidtaint) May 4, 2018

btw the excruciating sounds of airplane noise should accompany trump whenever he speaks, new rule

Trump has a point. This is why our criminal justice system allows a couple of practice trials before the official one that counts, to kinda let the lawyers get their footing, work out the kinks, make all their mistakes early on. You can't expect an attorney to be on the top of their game or know what they're talking about right out of the gate.

Nothing but the very best people. The cream of the crop.

We should invite Romney to our food threads.

Thought about putting this on the "rolling explaining conservatism" thread but I think only qualms and I ever go on that one anymore.
Facebook is getting the Heritage Foundation to help them fight fake news, lol:

https://splinternews.com/facebook-does-not-understand-the-conservative-grift-1825725673

The Kyl selection also shows clearly how the right continues to win. It is difficult to imagine them asking, say, some left-wing labor economists to conduct an internal audit on how Facebook treats its own workforce, or how its size and and influence have affected the labor markets in the various industries it has helped to Disrupt. The conservative movement has done a remarkable job over the last half century to bellow and bully its way into having its most ridiculous and reality-divorced concerns taken seriously. It lies about and distorts everything: about tax cuts, about Benghazi and her emails, about immigration, about healthcare, about Diamond and Silk. The further Facebook descends down the path of letting that screaming white face of faux outrage dictate how they run their platform, the harder it’s going to be for them to get away from them.

Hahahah!

I'm told that Rudy Giuliani will be issuing a statement shortly "correcting" some of his statements re Michael Cohen.

— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) May 4, 2018

I think we’re done for the day pic.twitter.com/98V3deKklC

— Sam Stein (@samstein) May 4, 2018

“He started yesterday. He will get his facts straight,” Trump said while leaving the White House on his way to the NRA convention in Texas. “Virtually everything that’s been said has been said incorrectly.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZSvXt3b1Ck

So as discussed and as expected, re: Stormy, nobody on the right cares. From my usual window into the dextrosphere http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=375108 :

Nobody cares. I don't care, and I'm a straight laced conservative from an evangelical background. I knew he was a reprobate, but he's a reprobate doing what I want done in government.

My wife doesn't care, and she's a mother of three, active church volunteer who won't let my kids say "butt." "We knew that stuff, but he's doing exactly what I want."

Even the single mom who cuts my hair at the strip mall doesn't care. "I got a raise, and all they'll talk about is Stormy Daniels."

It's not like he was a preacher before he ran. We knew what we were buying, and we're OK with it.

principles: what are they and how do they work

On the plus side, if none of this shit matters, it sure does open up the field of presidential candidates! You know, as long as you're not a woman, or black, or Latino, or Jewish, or ...

How kind!

Rudy Giuliani confirms he will be issuing a new statement. "It's a question of misinterpretation," he says. Of the president: "He says he loves me."

— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) May 4, 2018

Fuck those people in the eye

"Your honor, I'd like to change my position. When I said I was guilty? I meant, not guilty. My bad!"

Fuck those people in the eye

― El Tomboto, Friday, May 4, 2018 12:42 PM

there really is no other alternative imo

Trump will always be the smartest man in the room, with the best advice, as long as he surrounds himself with idiots.

foreign object, foreign object

Reality used to be a friend of mine.

Weird shit going down at the Manafort hearing ...

Not entirely. In context it's getting attention, but it appears to be a combination of procedural issues and trying to get clarity via Rosenstein's full order.

i don't care what you guys post for the rest of the year i will never ever get over MY FAVORITE MEAT IS HOT DOG.

For some reason, I can picture those being someone's final words just before they make a dramatic, Dwyer-esque exit from the world.

Not entirely. In context it's getting attention, but it appears to be a combination of procedural issues and trying to get clarity via Rosenstein's full order.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, May 4, 2018 5:01 PM (fifteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

some judge's mo is to press the party he rules in favor of as hard as they can during the hearing so they give more appearance of even handedness.

Yeah that's apparently part of what's happening here. Guess we'll see!

jesus that's dark, Old Lunchy!

JUST IN: Rudy Giuliani issues statement "intended to clarify the views I expressed over the past few days." https://t.co/usoHflZShm pic.twitter.com/cHKwDvhMnq

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) May 4, 2018

fourth: despite what you may have seen and read in recent days, i, rudy giuliani, am not at all afflicted by brain worms

The sign of a good attorney is when they follow up public statements with errata.

in the summer
writing errata

leaving aside everything else, i’m still just amused that apparently trump’s approach to making false allegations go away is to... pay off the liar

we’re blessed to live in a time where we get to see that razor-sharp business mind at work

meanwhile, still more crazy Pruitt bullshit. the balls on that guy. must be the hormones being dumped in the deregulated rivers.

What in the world did I just watch pic.twitter.com/4eudpGAxp0

— Liam Donovan (@LPDonovan) May 3, 2018

Trump . . . OTM? Not for the reasons he thinks, but I'll accept a blind squirrel situation here.

“You know what? We are going to have to outlaw immediately all vans and all trucks, which are now the new form of death for the maniac terrorists…so let’s ban immediately all trucks, all vans, maybe all cars. How about cars? Let’s not sell any more cars,” Trump quips.

— Lois Beckett (@loisbeckett) May 4, 2018

Odd glimpses of a better world.

new form of death for the maniac terrorists

I'm pretty sure SOMEONE could knock out a song with that title . . .

that Blankenship ad belonged on the "things that have to be Tim and Eric skits" thread

"Cocaine Mitch?!"

gotta say that even after trump opened the nickname floodgates, i never saw "Cocaine Mitch" coming

That's Swamp Captain Cocaine Mitch to be precise

I've been lol'ing at Cocaine Mitch since I saw it yesterday. Such a great pairing of words.

Ah, it all makes sense now.

Alex Jones is reporting that Trump is part of a group that is working to defend the world against a sentient computer that has decided to kill all humans.https://t.co/7maZjYvPgv

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) May 4, 2018

I think most people Trump's age say that about their computer when they can't figure out how to print mapquest

Wow, Alex Jones audience really are the hard core of UFO believers, paranoid delusives, and people who wander the streets holding hand-scrawled signs about the Second Coming.

I've been lol'ing at Cocaine Mitch since I saw it yesterday. Such a great pairing of words.

― two cool rock chicks pounding la croix (circa1916)

Tryin' to come up with some "Cocaine Mitch" lyrics a la the Mekons "Cocaine Lil."

Cocaine Mitch with the hair of the dog:

https://img.wonkette.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/McConnell-Eastwooding.jpg

"My favorite meat is hot dog"

“This is already an A.I. system that made the decision to have a post-human world and Trump has jumped in with others and are saying, ‘No, we’re not doing it,’ at the elite level,” Jones said.

btw what is the alleged coke-Mitch link?

some crew on a boat owned by a company partly owned by the chao family were caught smuggling a small amount of cocaine (90 lbs)

I'd probably call 90 lbs. of cocaine a moderately large amount. Just not industrial scale smuggling.

chaotic neutral

For some reason, I can picture those being someone's final words just before they make a dramatic, Dwyer-esque exit from the world.

Mitch McConnell is actually several dozen bags of cocaine stapled together and stuffed into a human suit

then sprayed liberally with flopsweat

i mean, many closeted gay men of MMc's age HAVE done the nose candy, but...

with yr bitch-slap rapping and yr cocaine mitch

she don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie

lmao shakey

he's so broke he can't afford to pay attention in his daily intelligence briefings

good mourning!

FWIW, it turns out I have *two* neighbors who work for the EPA (and an FBI agent neighbor, who knew?), and the EPA folks are much more dispirited and concerned than they were a few months ago. At the same time, Pruitt's longevity baffles them. One, last night, told me he was involved with a single IG review of something that went down once, and he said it was massively stressful and challenging. Pruitt is currently under something like *12* IG investigations. But he said Pruitt is surprisingly, deceptively intelligent and that his cronies are starting to figure things out, for the worse.

pruitt is almost as assholier than thou as pence. he's as much a koch-industries 'dignity wraith' as scott walker and sam brownback are. he could shoot a fetus on 5th avenue and the trump/freedom-caucus would be on orders not to say boo

JUST OUT: 3.9% Unemployment. 4% is Broken! In the meantime, WITCH HUNT!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 4, 2018

for real. where's the birth certificate?

why wages so low two-scoops huh

This is a mind-boggling story. The fossil fuel industry hired hundreds of actors to pretend they were citizens and testify at pubic hearings against renewable energy. And it worked.https://t.co/rSuPmMcWJY

— Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) May 4, 2018

Wow that was a fucked up read.

i guess that's job creation in an abstract sense...

gig economy tho

are they also available for crisis acting gigs?

Again, if they are accusing their opponents of doing it, it is usually because they are doing it all the fucking time. That is what these people are.

Right back to that piece of shit conservative dad whose wife won’t let the kids say “butt,” who doesn’t care that Trump is a vulgar reprobate - he assumes liberals don’t really believe in any principles, because he sure as fuck doesn’t and never has.

has anyone linked this? christ almighty. imagine the tweetstorm version.

https://viewfromll2.com/2018/03/11/on-the-origins-of-stormy-danielss-130k-settlement-payment-and-the-probability-of-the-disbursement-records-matching-the-settlement-amount-by-random-chance/

Trump Speaks At NRA Convention, What Could Go Wrong?

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-europe-44017172

US President Donald Trump has outraged French opinion by suggesting the 2015 attacks on Paris could have been stopped by giving people guns.

He mimicked gunmen summoning and shooting victims one by one, saying "Boom! Come over here!" and using his hand to imitate a gun being fired.

I'm willing to entertain his argument, but it would be helpful if he could actually demonstrate this proposed approach against a horde of attacking gunmen to give me a better sense of how it might play out.

He's really just such a brave and heroic gentleman. Valorous.

Re: tracer hand's linked blog post. What she's done there is a great example of unmasking a money-laundering scheme. If you read it all it becomes increasingly apparent that the Trump Campaign absolutely used political donations to pay five completely phony invoices issued by the Trump Organization, which money was funneled from the Trump Org to Stormy Davis in payment for the NDA that Trump never signed.

If I were on a jury hearing those assembled facts, I'd vote to convict every time.

Am I right in thinking this is an attempt to waft an accusation of a decade of money laundering at trump without coming out and saying it?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-the-king-of-debt-trump-borrowed-to-build-his-empire-then-he-began-spending-hundreds-of-millions-in-cash/2018/05/05/28fe54b4-44c4-11e8-8569-26fda6b404c7_story.html